Settling for less: student aspirations and higher education realities

Abstract

This study is the sequel to Phase 1 of the Student Choice Behaviour Project, From School to Higher Education - Factors Affecting the Choices of Grade 12 Learners, published in 2002. The main objective of Phase 1 was to examine learners' choices about entry into higher education institutions and field of study. Phase 2 traces those learners who actually entered higher and further education institutions, as well as those who repeated Grade 12, entered the labour market, or became economically inactive, and it nvestigates the factors that influenced them. The study also considers the achievability of two of the key objectives of the National Plan for Higher Education: to increase the participation rate in the system; and to shift the balance in enrolments away from the Humanities and towards the study of Business and Commerce, and Science, Engineering and Technology. Like the Phase 1 report, this monograph contains crucial information for those involved in higher education planning and policy-making, at national and institutional levels.

The Research Programme on Human Resources Development (HRD) at the HSRC provides state-of-the-art information on HRD. The Programme aims to inform the development of skills that will meet national social and economic needs. In addition to producing an HRD Review and an electronically accessible cross-sectoral data warehouse, the Research Programme undertakes user-driven research in education and training, focusing on further and higher education and science, technology and education, with a strong emphasis on learning pathways - especially the transition between different levels of education and training, and between education and work.